We don’t need them, they need us

To Maka Malory well as well. Still on the road, we've been um in Georgia with some with families such it was like, even though I mean it's the win of uh, you know for Senator Warnot, feels even better because of like getting there and seeing so many of our family members, people that worked with every day and how hard they were pushing on the ground. I mean, people really did some expensive work. And I was talking about it. I know people said I was being negative, Betty,

but it needed to be said. UM. But I thought that, you know, when de pundits were on the news the night of the election, um, and when you know people are online saying, you know, celebrating all those who were responsible. I just wanted to make sure that we never forget the the the organizers, the people like Black Voters Matter, you know, Georgia Voter Project, Uh. Who else? Melanie Campbell and National National Coalition of Black Civic participation, you know.

And I don't even want to get in trouble for leaving people out. But there was so many faces, so many individuals, revenue, all Priyant bonds, Worth, ventlely, um, you know, sororities, fraternities, so many people on the ground who were there to ensure that herschel Walker did not become a United States Senator and to ensure that Reverend were not kept to see.

And I thought, I just, you know, if the wind feels better knowing that America has to over and over and over and over again acknowledge, even if it doesn't want to say it out loud, the power of black

people and the power of black organizing. Yeah, it was the thing, you know, um, being on the ground, just feeling the energy, watching the youth like I'm just most impressed by you, you know, the way that they've been organized, in the way that they've understand the moment and understand how seriousness was, and seeing so many of them come out. And you know, I've seen um youth from New York

come down here to help, you know, organize. I've seen youth all over the world understood that Atlanta was like ground zero at the moment, you know, and and and if you went to social media to express you know, how it was definitely the voice and the organizations of black people that got this done. It wasn't just you know, like you said, it wasn't the Democratic Party. Wasn't that it did. It was the fact that grassroots organizers and black young and old and you know, in between everybody.

Guddy and everybody understood this moment it came up, and you know, and I went to social media and just expressed my disdain for the fact that the GOP had the unmitigated goal to even put hershel walk up there. And I think that was one of the things I think,

I think especially black men. Black men were insulted. You know that this is this is the person that she was gonna have as a representative of us, and you thought that she'd be just because he played football and he was a legend of football and he had a celebrity status that he were ignorant enough to vote for

someone who definitely wasn't it. It's not capable of leading, you know, that they didn't deserve you see, that wasn't even eligible enough, that didn't even have a platform, that didn't have anything that he ran on other than he was herstual walker. And you know, and I think that that that's one of the things that made me realize that as black men, we have to be a lot more assertive. We have to let our voices. We heard. A lot of us are doing a lot of work,

you know, on the ground, in the office, everywhere. But I think it's time for us to step up in a major way. Like I always say, I've watched a lot of black women, especially in this space, do so many things organized. You know, um speak up even when we're outside. I tell all the time, it's it's more women than it is men up. So I always I always do this for me. It's called out myself, not just black men. But I called out myself and I say we I don't just say y'all. I said, we

have to do better. We have to make sure that we're representing popularly, and we have to make sure that bro know that we understand when you're trying to you know, m hmm, yeah. I mean, you know, black men should have been insulted or should be insulted. And I think black people in general, you know, first of all, we literally are fatigue, like hell as a people just by all the stuff that we see, you know, the media constantly,

constantly attacking us. There's so much division that is being created between uh, different segments of our community because folks are uh, you know, there are there are issues that some of us care more about than others. So some people feel like, well, the administration is doing a great job in this area, and then there's other people are like, no, you know, there's more that needs to be done, particularly around the issue of policing, and it's you know, there's

a lot of back and forth. So you're dealing with that all the time, trying to make decisions about what you trust, what you don't trust, you know, how you feel about the system. You are also dealing with life as everybody, not just black folks, but we as a society. We're dealing with life. And it's a lot of fatigue

to have people going back and forth to vote. You know, it's already hard enough to get you out the first time, but to have to turn around and be back out there for a runoff is not an easy thing to make happen. And you know, especially if I feel like if the Republican Party had enough respect for black people, and for itself, they would have ran a candidate or they would have run a candidate that is much more

qualified uh than herschel Walker. And if they did that, it may have actually been a different outcome because of the numbers. You know, the numbers telling and a lot of people people said, well that means that you you know, you think black people would have just would have voted for the Republican candidate. No, but people would have stayed home if they didn't watch the news every single day and see there was a crisis happening, like this was

a crisis scenario. People were watching that, like this is a meltdown of someone who clearly has challenges um and and he can't be the senator. Not to mention that he was his his platform, it's anti most thing or anti things that most of us as black folks want to see happen in this country. So you know, it just it's it's a it's a funny time where we really have to have do some serious reflection on where we are because the numbers continue to show us that

this country is so divided it's a dangerous place. Is actually pretty outrageous that we even had a runoff, and that which I did see that it closed somewhere around a hunt a thousand votes, and I don't know that

was yesterday a hundred thousand votes. Um. Warnock was up. Um. And so hopefully by the time we look at the numbers, it grows even more, you know, towards the end of the week, um, you know, or by and whenever, we will see that the numbers are even stronger because the percentage point of how close they were, it's it's it's it's a scary place. It's a scary place. So, you know, hopefully anyway, But so in other outrageous news, but ln Ciaga is a little out here, like you know, I

didn't have time. First of all, I was just um, you know, there was so much going on. It's like again social media and media, it's like every day stuff is popping, popping, popping. So I kept seeing something happened with Valenciaga. I'm not like a big Valenciaga person, you know. I have a couple of things, but it's not like something I really really and like, oh when the newest such and such comes out, I'm gonna running get it.

So it's not it wasn't really important to me. But then I started seeing stuff about children sack and we were talking about this last week a little bit, and I still wasn't all the way up to speak. And then as we were traveling, I really took the time to read and start like digging into it. And it's like, this is some weird, weird child thing something. You know, I don't know if this I don't know if you

call it. It's all abuse, but like sacrificing and then the gods of children's sacrifice, and then it's like some straight weird, weird those stuff, and I'm like, you know, I'm just you know, it's no way. And now we see that Balenciaga dropped their lawsuit against the creative directors. You have to because no matter what, the buck stops

with you. It's like me choosing to sue somebody on on on our staff and until freedom that I already approved whatever they was doing and or haven't done the research to know that this person is actually a racist or a rapist or you know, or something. When it's out there, it's different if you don't know, you know

that nobody knows, that the world doesn't know it. But if you've been If you are a person who is on our staff and your Instagram or your social media is why open and you're promoting child pornography, that's my responsibility to know it definitely is your responsibility. Know if when you run an organization, when you run a corporation, you know, you're supposed to know, and I and I don't. I don't believe they didn't know. I think when you look at when you look at the history of this,

you know it's dating back. When you start showing you and you start unraveling and you look at these things, it shows you there's a history of these things that's been going on. It's like, how did it? Plain sight? You know, a lot of it. This this, this, this is under underground world that they believe in these things. You know, we were not involved in that world, so we don't we don't pay attention. We don't know what these dogs with the chains is. We don't know what

these little hidden meetings are. So when when people who do know start uncovering, and some people probably who actually are part of it, you know, decided they're gonna ring the bell, you know, and and that's what happened. That's what all all of this happened. They've been doing these things. You know when you look at um a lot of the staff and then then pointing out these things, you're like that this is a history, this is this is a lifestyle these people have left. You know, I'm not

a Valencia. I'm not really never been. I got one Valenciaga shirt that I'll never wear again. So you know, I think, and a lot of people, oh, you ain't saying that about Valencia. I'm like, what we see what it is said? What do we gotta say about Balency? I don't wear Bulsia, you know what. A lot of times people want you to say what they want you

to say. I talk about black ship, the things that's going on in our community, things that's going on, the hip hop and the culture, the violence in our community, you know, the things, the negative you know, people inside of our community, I know are detrimental to black people. Those are the things I speak about most of the time. But when you you know, I didn't think that those underworld that's that's what white people have been doing. Some

of the white people been doing that. Well, I'm not saying all white people were very very clear to say that's what some of these white people have been doing. Okay, what I'm trying to tell you is that culture when you look at when you go from Epstein and you go to all of this ship, this is ship that they've been doing that. It's not ship that I even know that. It's comes into my culture, into my life. It's not a reality in my life. It's not something

that not even identified with. I've never had a conversation with somebody who was into those things. I don't know anything about it. So me talking about it, it's like, what am I saying? I don't funk with pedophiles and people. You know, when they were talking about Kelly was working

a little Girls. I had a conversation on it because Kelly, it's inside of my culture and I know that the these little girls you told about with young black girls that didn't have anything that we didn't understand none of this. So people want me to talk about Biliscia out and I was like, well, I don't really, it's nothing for me. Y'are seeing it. Y'all know exactly what's going on. You know what I'm saying. So that was that was my point.

There's a there's a difference between Valenciaga and Nike period. Like you said, Nike is something that is in our culture. You have millions, and we talked about this last week, so it's not anything new. But you know, I now have done some research and I'm like wow. And the thing I'm like really trying to figure out is, I know there's diet product, which is one of those um Instagram pages that you could go and learn things about brands.

But I'm trying to figure out where else do we go to like research some of the things about you know, products that we buy, not just things you wear, it's things in your house, it's companies all around us every single day, places where we eat, people we are in relationship to businesses we support. And I don't know how

you I guess there's no way. I guess you find out in times of controversy and then at that point, you know, and of course one of the more important things is to try to support your own as much as possible, which we agree with. I found the stress that I love, UM that I wore on this this past Sunday to an event, and UM it's a black

owned designer. You know, I'm like, wow, it's wonderful. To find designers that are um, you know, affordable somewhat because it was a nice old penny, but still it was in my price range, and it's good quality, good customer service, all of that. So I think increasing the support for our brands, um you know, making sure that we target our own first is important. I do want to push

back on one point though. Yes, I know that the culture you're talking about culture, and that's what you were saying culture, culture is largely that white people participate in this child sacrifice and behavior. But then you said, I don't. I don't really, I don't mess with pedophiles anyway. And I just want to say for black girls everywhere, there are black pedophiles. And they're not just men. There are women too that are pedophiles. It is something that exists

within our culture, in our community. Rather in our community, there are people who take advantage of kids in every single race. And so, yes, that the sacrifice and stuff and and and like the degree to which there this thing looks because we don't know what we do know right now, And I'm just trying to be careful because I still don't. Like. I found some stuff that I was reading and I'm like oh my god, can't believe it. And then when I did some deep research, I found

out that it wasn't true. So the internet is also very as I say every week, very very dangerous. But the overall sentiment of it, yes, it cannot be applied to the fact that there are white people who have participated in this type of behavior and in fact, in a lot of ways because of our enslavement and our um being uh what is the word being cultivated by? Um? You know, the sort of American society of what happened. We learned some things and picked up some behavioral patterns

that is harmful to our communities. So I totally get that, But I just want to say, on behalf of black girls and black boys pedophiles exist in every single community. I don't. I don't think. I don't think that I must. I definitely understand because we just said that we were about Kelly, and I was like, they're all pedophiles or community. I'm just talking about when you look about this this underworld of um child pornography and you know, all of

these things I have. Yet maybe I'm wrong. It's just not something that I've seen that's prevalent or even spoke about in black culture, Like even when they show you the people who are guilty of it, I don't think I've ever seen a black person that they said was doing it. So maybe I'm wrong. I could be wrong, but it's just not something that's identified in our culture as a norm or something that is even spoken about in our culture. You know, pedophial pedophilia is spoken about.

But this underworld of child pornography, and you know, these little rings of all the ship I hadn't seen black people involved. Maybe they are, well the rings, the rings, yes, the rings, Yes, this such trafficking thing because that's the newest. And you know, and most of the time we as black people are involved in things that you know, we're trying to take advantage of, like how we get paid

off of being in this right. So for instance, even when we were engaged in enslavement of our own people, there was some I mean, there was the the there was the European mind set of indentured servitude that was much more brutal, much more demeaning, dehumanizing all of that, and then there were Black people that was like, yeah, we could eat off for this too, or Africans rather that was like we could eat off of this too, So we do get involved in stuff trying to see

like how do I benefit from this enterprise, whether it's good or bad from a financial perspective. But and there are some sick people that we can actually sell kids to and do all of these crazy things. But we are engaged. We are engaged. We are in the fruit in the food chain, and it's and and it's something that has to be called out, so you know. But anyway, it's not really a debate because you agree. So it

is what it is. I'm just saying and I think, you know, just thinking about what people can expect for me, because as I'm doing the research, I'm like, okay, supporting more black brands. I've always tried to do that, I want to do it even or But I do have two or three things from some of these brands that we're canceling that I'm probably gonna continue to wear. And most of it is just comfortable sneakers, Like it's not really like, you know, I'm not I probably will never know.

I know for sure that I'm never ever going to be outside with the Valenciaga sweater with all the Valenciaga around and I can't ever do that. You know, that's it. It's over. It's packed up in the Gucci box with the stuff that every every It's like the little bins for the things I'm never gonna wear again. It's growing and growing and growing. But I do have my comfortable sneaker is that I travel with. I got my because I'm also not supporting anything Kanye, that's just not I'm

just not doing it. But I got my phones. I'm gonna wear those, and I probably got like two fair nikes that I'm probably gonna wear, so people can expect that from me. Well, it's it's it's kind of it's you know what, you know what, it's kind of U. I don't really agree with that method because because I hear it from a lot of people. Um, because you're you're pretty much icon to certain people. You are a

cultural somebody who's cultural. What you wear people pay attention to, right, So people see you wearing things you you promoting these things, right, So there's gonna be people that see you with those sneakers on, see you with Blixiaga sneakers, and but I want to make and still wear them. So I'm gonna go buy me those, and I like those anyway, so

let me go get it. So in essence, you're you're not you're actually hurting the process because when every time you wear it you advertise it, if somebody's gonna look at you and said that, they're gonna go get it. So, I just don't know if it's worth that. If just if you think just because there's a bunch of shoes that you can wear, you've got hundreds of shoes. You don't have shoes. No, that's not true. I have. There are certain things that I first of all, I and

purchase Valenciaga sneakers to be in fashion. That's not never why I purchased them, right, I didn't. I'm not, like I said, I'm not a Valenciaga fan. I literally have four or five things in my house that's Valenciaga. Uh, there're certain brands that I am a fan of that I actually wear a lot of their stuff, and I order shade and I'm online to things and never physically. But you know, Stylus and others helped me get in

the line to purchase new releases. I bought Valenciaga sock sneakers because they're quick and easy to travel with taking them off and on, and they're very, very comfortable. That's why I bought the two pair of sneakers that I had. One pair has Valenciaga written all big on it on the bottom, and they real cute. Some black and white sneakers. I'm not wearing those because it does have a big

old logo money. But the other pair that's got this like little thing where you can't really see it, Yeah, I'm probably gonna wear those because they are comfortable and it's easy for me to travel, and I already spent my money on it, so I'm gonna wear him my um easy. The ones that look like skeletors and the slides, oh, I'm gonna wear those. Definitely gonna wear them. It's and I and I do reserve the right to wear a

black man's product no matter what. Like I couldnot like Kanye and say I can still wear my shoes because he is a black man, and I get to do that. And in terms of Nike, you know, I'll probably look for some other running shoes. I don't know Nike. I'm a little I do feel what you're saying. I feel that on the Nike tip I do. I kind of like,

I don't know. Maybe I keep holding onto these two particular pair because they're like my favorites that I have and I've had them for years and I wear them and they're comfortable in there and I just love them. But you know, I haven't put them on since this happened. So it's probably that I'm just saying it because I feel it in my heart. But as time goes on, I probably will get away from him. However, anything I travel with that makes my feet feel comfortable, I'm gonna

wear them. So that's that on that. And you know, I know people. People don't agree with every and you know, I listen, I they like me and they love me, and then they hate me, and that's just like listen, I love you. I'm just I'm just saying to myself, what sense is it really weird to promote? Because you every time you wear something. That's what I understand for me, Right when I wear something, I'm promoting every time that I wear things, people or will you get those from?

I want that. So if I understand that I'm promoting something, and I understand that these brands don't represent who I am, you know, Blissy, I'll gonna like you. And I made it, and I'm saying that I made a kind of decision that what it is that they represent, I don't represent. I don't I mean, just for comfort. I can find another pair of shoes, just comfortable. It's a lot of shoes that I like. Maybe maybe I will, maybe I will, maybe I'll find it. But here's what I do know.

Every single day we are finding out things about everybody. All kind of things come out. There's like a certain like at some point, I get what you're saying, and I believe what you're saying is correct. That we shouldn't be promoting and supporting these brands, which is why I would never buy anything from these individuals again. And I and I'm gonna pack up all the stuff that I may have from these different places because Nike I have my God. But at the same time, next week, the

new shoes that I get could be a problem. So I'm just saying that I have a couple of pairs of shoes that are comfortable for me for my travel, They're easily accessible, and I'm probably gonna wear them. And I get that some people are not gonna like that, but that's just my truth. So that's it. Okay. So you know, did my uh thought of the day today is on this Brittney grinding please. Last week we saw that she was released. Um, you know from the beginning, Um,

you know, we were supportive. We have always been supportive. We were mad as hell. I want to make sure that the Biden administration was doing what it's supposed to. We've never seen any uh progress on behalf of black people and particularly black women that did not require some noise. And so we helped along with a bunch of folks that have to give uh Angela Ry a lot of credit because you know, she was one of the first people when we know, when we got engaged, she was

already there working with Brittany's wife. And we held a few protests and events just to really make sure that this was on the map, that people were actually talking about it. And it really wasn't protest, but we um, you know, did bring some awareness and make some noise and you know, we even went to the Russian Russian consulate and had a prayer, visual inter inter faith pray invigil. Not you know, it wasn't hostile, but it was we were there to say listen, please like open your heart

to let this woman be free. And then people said, well, the administration is doing something about it. They made some statements, they were very public and they said we're making moves on it. They didn't want to have too many um they didn't want it to be too controversial, right, They wanted to really have the time that was necessary to work on and we said, cool, no problem, call us

if you need us. But we were monitoring the situation very closely, and to see that she was released, it's important, right, it's it's it's incredible, and in fact, it's historic that you know that America would really cashing a big, big, big big chip in the middle of of of us being in their war that they have going on with another country that we support, right or that this this country is supporting. UM. To see that they use this big chip to get this woman free, this black woman free,

a black queer woman free, is huge. It's huge for us, particularly as black women, because you know, it's like it shows our value. And I know I understand very clearly that there are people right now who are saying, one day are other imprisoned individuals, not just in Russia, but even here in America. Right, I saw on Angelo Pinto's page our our partner at Until Freedom that you know, America helped to get a black woman free regarding marijuana,

you know, a marijuana situation. We need to make sure that the people who are in jail in America for marijuana violations are also free, and we can say that what would be consistent is that the um that that the federal government and Joe Biden did sign an executive order to say on a federal level that people who are in prison for uh certain types of marijuana convictions

that they should be free. Right. So, so to this this is this is good, but it's still a lot with that because I learned more about how many people it does not apply to, and of course black everything there needs to be it needs to be um there needs to be focused on making the legislation better or

the executive order better and stronger. So but that's not what we're here to debate today, UM which reminds me we do need to have a show on that because there are some real significant pieces of it that's missing and so therefore it's not going to have the widespread appeal or that it needs used to have or effective effectiveness. But anyway, I understand the implications of other people that are imprisoned in Russia. I also understand the arms dealer.

What is he? The merchant of death. It's a very dangerous man, and it is a big chip, big chip to put on the table for one person. And you know, knowing that there are other people that were there longer than Brittany, I totally get it. I understand it, and I know there are people who want to have that discussion.

But I also want to remind everybody and remind us as black women that we are just that valuable, that we are actually just that precious and we get every and by the way, when you do business with somebody, they're supposed to do business back with you, right. So the business that we did was closing the deal for the Biden administration and helping them to get elected to office. We did business with the body uh administration. That's how

they got there. They said, it not just me, the exempos and Vice President Harris and President Biden, they both said, we have to thank black women. Black women helped us get here. We owe black women and you know who was out there really sort of leading the charge around getting Brittney Grinder or black women free. Black women not saying black men weren't. I'm just saying we had a role right and so they owe us and we're just

that valuable. And when you are responsible for helping someone get a job, then you show up on the job one day and say hey, I need to I need you know, I need to get a few things done here. Not saying that anybody should do anything illegal for you, I'm not saying that anybody should break the rules, but damn sure you should be acknowledged, and you should be moving a couple of favorites and now and then when you when you were you put working. That's that's the thing.

You're having relationships and building bonds and creating you know, community and things that I need just because you you you have somebody who you can call in the chip. You call it and say hey, we've been and they're like, oh, yeah, this person has always been supporting me. They don't. I'm gonna go above and beyond because I know when it came down to it, they got my back. And that's

that's what happened here. You know, black women pretty much supported and put this presidency into presidency, you know, so it's time to cash in one of those chips. Brittany's black women put the presidency in the presidency. Man. So I don't see nothing wrong with it. Man. Everybody ain't got the same juice, card man. And because everybody ain't putting the same working, well, there's that, and you know, hopefully there's more to come out of the administration on

a number of other issues. Yes, as of something going, they keep fighting, keep pushing. But this is a historic moment and this is what we all said. This is what we said, and a lot of people are still met all Joe Biden, Joe Biden, listen, we said that we was gonna push to get things done. When we look at these executives, we look at look at the things that are happening. Whether you think they're good, bad,

or they don't really matter. Everything that we've got done in this administration is because people pushed and they fought and they continue to fight and every day we fight. We're not we don't. Like we said before, we don't have no allies. We just wanted better. I wasn't gonna sit there. What did we say, what did we say? No, No, it's not so much they say. They say that the same is we don't have permanent friends. We just have permanent interests. That's what that's the same, right, We don't

have permanent friends. And we always said were looking for a better opponent. We was looking for a better opponent, and we went so this is still our point. You know, we're four Trump for four years and now we we're gonna fight him. We're gonna fight by his whole term. But we got a better chance of beating him. We got a better chance of beating him in two submission to doing the ship we want because Trump don't give a funk. Trump al killed itself before he gave an

about a black man. That man don't care that you know, So I'm not I'm just for me. You know. This is this is proof that you know, for me that the work that's been put in is slowly, slowly coming to food. You know, a lot of these executive orders that we've seen side slowly. Sure they could be a lot better, all these things, but I'm slowly seeing things happen. Is because we continue to push and we continue to fight.

We got a guess coming up now. Trent out loud from exclusivey uh, and I'm super excited to bring this brother on so we can learn about what he has going on in Canada and be out here talking to people internationally. This gentleman who's joining us today is very, very very persistent. I uh. For a few days was being tagged in my stories the d ms the comments section by someone saying, you know, check read your read your stories, check check your DM, check your DM. And

I get that a lot. And sometimes I open things that are it's not favorable, um, you know, rude, lies, all kinds of things, and so I'm careful about what I exposed myself too. But I did click UM on his page to learn, like just to see, like, who is this person that's being so persistent, And I was like, Oh, wow, this guy, you know, somebody that I think we should

learn more about. Uh. And then I read the story about, you know, his partnership with Nike and where that relationship stands, and I was like, Oh, this is someone we want to off to just to learn more, you know, and and to really sort of understand what's happening with UM some of the relationships with black partners and you know and black UM other black owned Uh, you know companies

that have relationships with Nike and other brands. And I think what we were just talking about, Mice is so important that we are we find out things in the midst of catastrophes and controversy and what have you. And so I guess, you know, a lot of things are come into life now. So it is what it is, um. But you know, upon learning more about him, I found that he's more than just the partnership with Nike. He

actually has a lot going on. A Canada resident, um, and someone who's business had it extends beyond just a sneaker brand or sneaker store. He actually is engaged in a lot of things and and being sort of an activist as well and real interesting guy. So let's bring Trent out loud, who has a boutique in Canada called Exclool City Exclool City, Uh, and let's learn some more about him. Thank you trying, thanks for joining, Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor. What's up, Mice?

What's going on? So tell us about Exclude City like city exactly so Exclusive City joining Exclu City, um. So, School City is a sneaker boutique that UM I started that was actually at the trunk of my car. We sold do rags and long teas. If you guys remember that, UH long teas and do rags used to drive down to Manhattan and UH I started selling mix tapes and long teas and do rags of the trick of my car. UH gott into a basement of a tattoo parlor at

my first brick and mortar location, etcetera, etcetera. Fifteen years down the line, we are a national brand and UH Canada's you know, premier sneaker boutique and the only black owned neighborhood account with Nike neighborhood. What is the neighborhood account? So thank you so much for asking me that. So the neighborhood account is Nike's top tier account. They classified

as as Nike and Jordan's backbone to their business. UM neighborhood accounts are tapped too, set the trends culture and influence style and trends, because we all know that's where all these corporate companies get all their ideas from. Right. So, for example, like the Jordan's one Lost and Founds that just came out, you won't find that at Sears or

Debay or Coals or department stores. You'll find that in your neighborhood, UM, neighborhood accounts and your in your neighborhood boutiques because they want to get that those styles to the kids that are going to create the culture. So, UM, we're Nike's you know, top tier. UM, you know, their best and brightest um hairs are given to neighborhood accounts. So how long have you? How long did you? I've

been doing it since when? Again, So I've had a Nike account for we've been open, We've just celebrated our our sixteenth year anniversary. I've had a Nake account for close to thirteen years. M wow. So but before we get more into the ninety situation, what I what was intriguing to me beyond your current issues in terms of dealing with that company, was your personal story. And I see that you had two books. UM. One is called How Sneakers Uh Saved My Life and the other one

is How Sneak Has Ruined My Life? And I was like, this is interesting. There must be something really powerful that lies in that story. So tell us about your journey, um. And then ultimately, why did you write those two books. Okay. Um, So I've always wanted to write and to kind of give back. And it started out as like a how to book, how to live your truth, how to you know, not beulacy, how to be present, persistent and get the attention of Tamika Mawory and my son, um you know,

and it just it just didn't really connect. Um. And then during COVID and as I was preparing to celebrate my fifty year anniversary at the store, I started writing my story and my journey. And then I gave it to a few people and they're like, yo, that's the book you need to write. You need to write your autobiography. And even though I'm young, it's still you know. And this the reason why even started my podcast. It turned out lot of podcasts. I believe that everybody has a story,

everybody has a journey. If you're a neighbor or custodian or whatever, it doesn't matter. Like everybody has a journey, has a story. So um, that's where it started out.

And um, and for me, I wanted to give back to the people that helped me get to my fifty unniversary, that black men or women out there that is looking for a black entrepreneur, and they don't see when especially appear in Canada, you don't see a lot of black entrepreneurs being successful, having a multimillion dollar business and having a national brand, and especially writing a book about it.

So I just thought it was really important to give back to the community that gave gave me my everything. And so why why are the two books and one sneakers stage your life on one it rooined your life? Okay, so the first one saved my life is it starts out with me, um, and I thought it was really important to let people know, UM my, my family backgrounds. I feel like a lot of us come from this. Unfortunately,

the same dynamic where I grew up in. UM my father was president, but it was also a verbally and physically abusive household. Um I got out of that house. Um I got I moved out of my house and I was seventeen years old, you know, started hanging around with the wrong crowd. Uh, you know, getting arrested. I had a gun charge. Um I. Um was found guilty of fraud. I was UM yeah, I was just going

down the wrong place. I was banned from entering the US, and UM, I just looked one day and I was like, yeah, I can't keep going down this road. I can't keep going on that this path. And I looked to, um, I only graduated high school. I self educated myself. I started reading books, and I started trying to understand more about business, and it was and that's why the book is How Sneakers Saved My life. It's really how business

saved my life. But I just use Sneakers as the catalyst because I opened five companies that failed prior to exclucity making it work. So that first book is really about the grind and determination and not letting um your unfortunate circumstances or your past or your family's dynamic to

not let that hold you back. And I felt like I didn't find enough business books from entrepreneurs or CEOs that spoke about that, So I thought it was important to let our culture know that no, UM, you don't have to let your circumstances hold you back and you can be profitable. So now tell us about how Sneaker has ruined your life. All right, So so that was the positive. Now the negative aspect is that business is not always cracked up to be go into business thinking yeah,

I'm gonna be my own. But you know, like you know did e J. You you know, you look at all of these you know, rappers and you know that hip hop lifestyle and fifty cent get Richard I trying, and you're like, yeah, I'm gonna be a boss. I'm gonna do this. So I'm gonna have cars, gonna have all that, and you gotta be careful what you wish for. Man. Um, I was very successful. I had the house that I wanted, I had the cars that I wanted. I had the lifestyle that I wanted and that I thought that I

wanted that was gonna make me happy. And I, um, you know when they say, like the material things are not gonna make you happy, but you're like, let me get those material things and find out. You know, I got those material things and I found out real quick that that you know, it wasn't making me happy. Um. So that's part of the book. And the second part of the book. Um. Still, how sneakers ruined my life

was the Nike and Adidas battle. And I don't know how familiar you guys are in a sneaker industry, um, but when Kanye left Nike for Adidas. It started a huge battle between the two brands, and not in the mainstream, but like what I spoke about before, in the neighborhood tiering, and it really started Nike and Adidas really focusing on hype. And what a lot of people don't realize is that these hype sneakers, we don't get enough of them to pay our rents and to um to make our payroll.

So um in two thousand and eighteen, I lost two point two million dollars UM due to this. Yeah, yeah exactly, that's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you man exactly. That's why these books are are really important. And I didn't even know I was gonna be on your show talking about that, but but thank you for bringing it up. UM. So so when I and and just to make sure, like when I when I speak about that, people are like, Okay,

you lost two million dollars in sales. No, No, I lost two point two million dollars Like I lost that money, not in sales. I physically lost that UM. But the important part about it is that I lost more during Sorry. The important part about that is that I learned more about business during that time that I learned in the time growing I had to get financial advised. You see what I'm saying. That's what's important. That's why I booked two.

Is very important. The grind, hustle, and you know, not letting the obstacles get you in your way is really important. But also when you get there, the dynamic of business, and it could apply to anything in life, your downturns, or where you're gonna learn about yourself the most and about your business the most. Right um So, anyway, so I was like very close to filing for bankruptcy two thousand and nineteen. UM I lost two hundred thousand dollars,

which still is a loss. But if you look at the year before losing two million, and then the next year losing only two hundred thousand, that means that I've made exactly I made the appropriate changes, and in two thousand and twenty came along UM and then you know we're on our way to being more profitable. And then COVID hit and then I'll give away the secret. There

is a book three. Book two ends at me UM with me on the floor drunk, coming back from Barbados, dealing with the anxiety of not knowing how I'm going to survive this potential bankruptcy and I haven't fought for bankruptcy and I'm more successful now than I have been um in the past fourteen years. But I'll tell you guys about that book. Three mm hm. So, so tell us about this current situation that you're going through with. Okay, that's a loaded question. What do you want to know exactly?

How did you get the relationship with Nike going? Like where? How did you Is it just an application process or did so? Thirteen years ago when we were starting out, like I said, we started, I was doing it was just doing apparel, and it was now setting emails, doing applications, and they got denied deny did in the night. And we had to prove ourselves with others, with other sneaker companies before like we got Supra, then we've got Converse, and we've got Vans, and then you work your way

up in the Nike. He's like, Okay, you could make yourself, you know, profitable and working without Nike, then Nike will will open your account. But that was thirteen years ago.

They're not opening any new accounts now. Sorry to like for any kids out there that that's that's looking to open this think your boutique, but so so now what I'm understanding is that you as a business that has a boutique where people can walk into the boutique and purchase, and obviously everything is going digital, people are shopping more online. You at some point started to move your business to

a digital space and then there became some issue. So tell us about that and you know and where you

swear you are now all right? So um prior in two thousand and nineteen, uh, when we started, um, you know, making changes to to stay out of bankruptcy, I closed down a lot of my non profitable stores, and I had an idea to say, listen, instead of having these you know, rents that are fortys in these payrolls out of forty tho dollars a month, you know, I'm starting out a month a hundred thousand dollars behind eight ball, Like I'm gonna I'm gonna change the um the structure

of of what traditional brick and mortar is. And I want to have my stores be more experience stores where I'm pushing people to shot more online, and then I'll be able to move my stores away from the locate the the the high traffic locations and I can have cheaper rents and I can maybe not open every day and just have the stores be more of an experience stores and less of a traditional brick and mortar and then you have your inventory at a warehouse and then

ship your product to the customer. Makes sense, right, Um? So the so that was approved, and then during covid Nike made UM a lot of managerial changes, and uh, coming out of COVID UM, you know, they're like, Trent, you gotta open up your stores. What's going on. I'm like, hey, I told you guys before I was working on my new concept. I'm working on it. They're like, okay, whatever you're doing, just do it. I finally got it open UM December two thousand twenty one and they opened and

I opened, and they're like, what is this. You need to open your traditional brick and mortar retailer. What is this experience stores? You're only open a few days a week. People can't buy product in your store. They have to order on the tablet and it ships to them. And like, we spoke about this, and I have emails to prove this that it was approved. They're like, listen, that was past management. We don't care about what they say. You

need to open your traditional brick and mortar. And I'm like, hey, guys, I wrote a damn book about the ebbs and flows and the downturn that I just experienced for three or four years with this old traditional brick and mortar retail model, and you guys are not giving me the amount of pairs that I need to pay these rents and to pay these payrolls. So I'm not going to go back and open up a traditional brick and mortar retailer if I'm not going to get the product to um to

um to balance those those expenses, right. And um they had a problem with that. We went back and forth and um, and that's my issue now. Um we I sent them a couple of lawyer letters. They sent me back a lawyer's letter, and my account was closed October the first, two thousand and twenty two. Mm hmm. See That's why I say, Maggie, you know, that's that's been that's been my mode, you know. And so you you you you started modernizing, getting with the times, understanding that

you needed a lot less overhead. You know, they already had trusted you with the brand because you knew obviously, you knew how to market and sell the brand, you know, so when you came to them with this new model that you were going to did initially agreed and said, okay, this is it's okay. So the new leadership came in, they said, nah, we don't care about nothing that We need you to do the regular old stuff that you've

been doing. That basically had you damned bankrupt and had you about to eat at the garbage so amasically like you didn't give a funk about you. They was trying to figure out, Look, we just need our shoes inside of the stores. We don't care what you gotta do. We don't care if you can make money. None of that badness to us. We need you to open these bricks brick and mortar stores and have to sneak is physically in there or it's over correct. And and that

is my argument. And this is why, Like I follow you on your Instagram and I know your whole funk Nike hashtag, and I was like, should I leave these two Jordan's right here behind me? I wonder what my

sound is gonna think? I was, but I short of I was gonna say something, but I understand that that's your things, but I don't know this is your you know, that's your thing me and to me to just had a conversation prior to you coming on about her saying she got two pair Nike that she probably still on where that you know, maybe she still she still she

loved those her favorites. But you know, I just think I think we're at a time, you know, when these corporations, traditional corporations that have benefited off of us, have profited off us, showed us, show us that they don't value us, right and this and that's what this basically goes down to. It's not it's like they don't value they value you when they think that you can make the money. They don't value the brain power that you have. Because obviously,

you you understand the market. You out there any you have these brick and mortar stores, and you understand where the market is calling. For most people, I don't even I don't even think I go this once in a while, I go to a sneaker store here there For most part, I see sneakers online in order they sent me four or five sneakers. That's how most people are shocking. So when when you've already established a brand like exclusiity. You you already established that brand, so people know that you

have the exclusive. So once you make it, put it online and oh yeah, this is okay, this is the store I used to go to. I could just sit at my house and order these same sneakers, or I can go there. I know, i gotta be there on Monday or Thursday because that's the only days it is open. So I'm definitely gonna go there. And only only a few of us to get to that. You know what

I'm saying. So you you understand it's still etlusive, and you understand them the marketing, and you understand the strategy and and and the fact that they don't value that, right, the fact that they wouldn't value that means that they just don't value us, and and and I know you know that's your business. And I'm not telling you what to do, but I just think that we have to

get into the mind state. Like I was telling you before we even started, that there has to be us detaching from these systems because they understand that's what gives them the power. They realized that we feel so attached to these systems that we feel like we need them to be able to do these things. And it's like, no, we we created the culture. We created the fast we created.

Look like you said, we've created what's cool. We dictate what's cool, and you have to start dictating the things that are cool that we actually control, you understand, And that's what they know. They know that that you create the cool, and then they they do the things that they control for you to make it cool. And then they when they don't feel like you benefit them no more, they take it away. And then we look like, oh,

what do we know? We created the cool, So it's it's time for us to get get into that mind state. You know, black owns, black business creating the cool, creating quality. You know, I have a bunch of different brands who have been senta me quality black brand sneakers, and I'm like, wow, I didn't even know these existed because I was so trapped into I gotta get these Nikeis and I get these gotta get this that I don't even realize there was brothers like me coming from The brother told me

that he just came out of prison. He did three three different things of president. He was a rapid us, and that he just started designing his own shoe in prison. Now he's a neemons. He's in all of these major stores with his own shoes and in a quality shoes. But we don't know these things because we're still attached to the matrix and these corporations that actually don't give

a funk about us. So, you know, I think this is a time for you to pay attention and still do your business and senior lawyers to do with it, because this is this is your business. But while you're doing that, start to create something that does not dictated by the people who are these corporations that don't give a funk about us. Okay, so you said a lot. I want to unpack a few things. One really important thing that I love is that I've never spoken to you before. You and I do not know each other.

We literally just met five minutes ago. I was able to tell you my idea and my concept in four minutes, and you got it, and you were able to repeat it to me verbatim. And not only that, you're also able to repeat it and identify that it's a brilliant idea and a very profitable idea. But You're telling me that no Nike executive could look at my idea that is way more in depth presented to in the deck and all of this stuff, and to say, hey, Trent,

that's a great idea. When we were shut down and we're I'm in Canada, we were shutdown a lot longer than you are. Stores were closed here, retail stores for a year and a half. I was more profitable during that year and a half than I have been in the past fourteen years. Forget opening up stores as an experience where I'm telling you my stores were shut down, that's proof to Nike that I don't need stores. Mm hmm. I was calling them saying any extra inventory you have.

My inventory levels were at the lowest they were ever they had ever been during COVID. Yes, I understand a lot of people were buying more, shopping habits were different. My point is is that I've proven to Nike that I could be more profitable closed than open. The reason for me opening up experience stores is for the customer to get an experience on a Saturday or on a Friday. And it wasn't necessarily just transactional reasons. I was gonna have,

like you know, just like events a party, DJs. I was just gonna give the customer, um, you know, a place, a cool space to create culture. That's what it was. It wasn't at all even to sell the product, because, like I just told you, I could be more profitable just not even having stores. So that that's one thing. The second thing is, like I told you, I left up the shoes on purpose because I wanted to have this conversation with you and to be honest with you.

I think I'm like to make it like I don't know exactly where I stand on wearing the product. And this is what I wanted to speak to you. Is it fuck Nike or is it fuck Nike management? Is it fuck Phil Knight and John Donahue who's the founder and now CEO. Because it's not fun the Cowboys, it's Jerry Jones. You need to stand up and denounce racism. It's not fun the US. It's fun Donald Trump? So is it is it the brand? Is it the country or is it you know, is it fun Russia or

is it funk Putin? I think that is the question that we have to ask each other. Well, I mean it's it's very simple for me it's fun. Thank you for me, because it might be that people might say it's because my thing is this, When you are the founder or CEO of a company, you are the the

head of that company. You represent that right. And if people inside that corporation realize if other people inside that corporation, because it's been a lot of corporation, just like what happened with Twitter, when Twitter, when Elon Musk went over there, he started doing this that racist ship, people quit right. People a good moral standards and understand the stance that I refuse to be aligned with something that doesn't represent

me moral right. So if it just like in America, you can't say for America, there are people inside America that publicly revolting against the ship that Donald Trump of American Donald Trump, So you don't have to say but outside of America, they might say America because that's who you're lead. Is we inside of America understand we we might we see it differently because most of us don't

funk with Donald Trump. So I mean, from my perspective, if the CEO and the co CEO decides to do some racist ship and nobody inside that corporation speaks up and say this, This doesn't represent our values. We can't be attached to that. And that means that you are complicit. That means that you you actually agree with this this method.

Nothing agree. I don't know. I wouldn't say they agree, but I would say silence is definitely violent, but it doesn't mean greed, right, and it is Stilence means that you agree with. If you're standing next to me and I say you're funk the whole world, and you're standing right next to me, you co sign funk the whole world. If you're standing right like this, we were you. Now. I'm just saying I I hear you, and I understand from abroad you know perspective, how that is true that

if you are silent about something, you become complicit. I don't know if that means you agree, but you do become complicit. And I think being complicit is a little different than agreeing. It means that basically you are convicted at this point because you have not uh you know, stated because because I this is a conversation I've had with you before. I know a lot of people that know one that their friends is you know, doesn't see

their children. Uh, you know, might be even abusive to women or whatever, right, and that it doesn't mean they agree that they are standing next to the person or that they continue to work with them or see them, but they are complicit if you know something like this is happening and you're not doing anything about it. So I think it's I think it's very tricky how we talked about it. But I do want to circle to

one thing. Um, you would talk and Trent about how easy it is for us to see what you're trying to do and why it's important. I think archaic mindsets within companies right where you have people, especially white folks, that have a particular position and are inflexible in terms of how they see things, it is very it's very damaging for businesses in general, right, Like I mean, we

were just talking about Balenciaga. At some point somebody, some new leadership was supposed to come along and say, these people gotta go, like this whole thing that's going on over here, it has to go. But their archaic mindset tells them that, you know, people get so arrogant, like you know, we know better, and that is that you know what we're you gonna say, Yeah, you know we know better and we're gonna stand on a particular position.

And I think we can all learn from that across the board with our big businesses without organizations, that we have to be flexible enough to move, to change, to shift. And that's what you're trying to do. And I appreciate what you're trying to do and understand it very well because it makes perfect sense. And I think that what is unfortunate is the idea that they will close down stores. Right with loss, all businesses have had to reduce size. Um,

they have closed stores, they've cut stores in half. You know, I went to a store recently and it was like this. You know, at one point it was this big, big, big thing and then now it's like half of the size because of what had to make different decisions. And for you to be and this is where I completely agree with you, my son, for you to be a

black business, the only black business. Nike should be using its power to help you grow so that you can open all those stores again at some point and make all and have it experience you open every day, all all the things. But they should be flexible enough to work with you at the time when you need to shift so that you can stay in business. And I think that is for them to try to push your

back up against the wall. It is very uh it's telling you know about sort of where they stand with their relationship too and their real commitment to supporting black folks. And and and and and I and I hear you on the idea of trying to like figure out is

it funck Nike or is it fuck these individuals? And I agree with my song that once you represent a brand, you know, because once Black Lives Matter leadership got into some issues the whole brand, people won't support BLM and you know f BLM, and you know, we started to sort of experience that which also cross over the movement. There are people like we don't we're not supporting any

of the organizations. So I totally get in see. But I also no Night has done some good things for you know, standing with Colin Kaepernick, you know, some of their community initiatives. I know they've done that. And that's not why I'm talking about my two payer sneakers that I intended to possibly where I'm just saying that that is a conflict that we have to acknowledge that there are people who feel both ways. Nonetheless, we really don't

need any of these brands. We truly don't. What we really need is uh for us to be trying to find ways to build our own so that we don't have to be in debt it to them forever. Now here's my conflict on even what I said. We should also not be boxed out of the market place. We as black business owners, we who have stores, we want to wear certain things, should not be boxed out of the marketplace where we only can you know, everybody else

can buy anything they want. They can buy from the Asian community, the Black community, the white community, whoever they wherever they want to, and we should not be boxed out of the marketplace where we can't make money and cannot compete on a global level because we're you know, have been reduced to just or not so much reduced. I don't want to use negative language, but we've sort of been boxed into only supporting one thing. So it's

a lot of issues that will come up. But I think that we're at a place where as soon as we find out that this company, especially these companies that are making white folks super super super super super super duper rich, we should have no problem cutting it when we need to. Uh yeah, I agree with a lot of your points. I just want to tackle three of them. So you're you may have comments about old leadership and

them thinking they're stuck in their old ways. Um, Nike revenue direct sales were up last year eighteen point seven billion dollars. There were up eighteen percent digitally. Nike is very as very well aware that did digital is the place to be. So they they're not like, oh, well, you know, you know how many Nike stories you're seeing open opening up? Nicky knows that they need to um,

that they need to focus on their sneakers app. But when they're so focused on digital, which is the more profitable end of the business, they need somebody to take the expensive end of the business. And that falls on the neighborhood to win, not for you to win exactly. That that's my problem. Now what upsets me is these In two thousand and twenty one, Nike held the summit

for Black and Latin as retailers. Now, we didn't ask for the summit, we didn't ask for any help, and they came and they said, hey, you know again, credit to both you guys for for bringing attention to the George Floyd movement. Um you know that whole era, every company came around and was like, oh my gosh, what can we do for black people? What can we do for black people? Nike, you held this summit and they said, we want to listen to you, we want to learn from you, and we want to read a find and

how we work. I can't speak for anybody else. Nike listened, but they didn't learn, and they didn't redefine because I presented them with an amazing concept and how to redefine our relationship and they didn't. And that's what pisces me off. If you don't want to help us, don't help us. I am cool with that. But if you're gonna say you're gonna help us, don't make it lip service. Come

out and really help us. Because I provided you with a fundamentally sound, profitable business concept, and I asked you to help me by supporting me, not helping me by any sort of financial means, just support the approval that you gave me two years ago. And they turned me down and tried to and try to force me to go back to a model that push me into smoking, drinking, I talked about it in the book. I don't want to get getting here like I was in therapist office

every week. Uh left from my therapist office going to a Bank of C trustee. Uh you know it's I was day is away from filing for bankruptcy. I can't I can't begin to explain to you how it is to wake up every morning preparing to lose a company that you built for fifteen years of your life. I'm single, I have no kids. Extracity is all I have. Extracity is my everything. And I had to wake up every day and financial advisors told me it's not if you're

gonna lose it, it's when you're gonna lose it. You know hard that is to manage through, and then, miraculously, because of the shutdown, and because of the lockdown, I was able to do what was told to me by every person financial present that wouldn't happen because it was an unprecedented time. I came out of that. And now you want me to go back to that because you think that you know how to heap the streets and to create culture better than me. Well, why why was

I the only black account? I'm so mad? I thing is. The thing is, they don't think that right. The reality is they understand the market like you understand the market, right, But they realize they don't need you to do it anymore because they could do that by themselves. They can go online and send it to they can send out oils. So they need to cut you off because ultimately you don't really benefit them the more you they've used you

to get to this this place. And now they're saying, yo, we don't need him because if he's sent him clothes on them, we can self sh online ourselves. We don't need him no more. The loyalty that he's been here and all the sneakers he's sold and him being one of our top they don't care about that. It's not The thing is, it was never like a partnership to them. It was how can I benefit It's like you over there, you over there, and I need just to get that block.

So if you're not just gonna be on that block, standing there for the rest of your life when that's stand block, you're not trying to grow outside of that. If you if you're not gonna stay on that block, we don't need you no more. So that's I'm trying to tell that it's not about value. It's how do I make money off It's not how much do I make money with you. They don't want to make money with you. They want to make money off of you. They want to benefit off of what you bring, only

what you bring to the table. And it's not That means after thirteen years, there's never it's never really been a partnership. It's not like, okay, we've we got here together. You you had all these stories, people going to these stories, buying all these nikes. Now we did you ever. We all can make money. You can get it over there, you can send it for over there, you can do these things. We all together because you helped, let's get to a level that we are. We realized. We acknowledge that, no,

you're not on that corner no more. You're not the dude boy on the corner that's taking the risk that's going hand in hand. It might lose everything if you aren't able to do that. If we don't need you, We don't need you boss enough no no, no, no. The boss up shot and where you can make triple times the money, Now we don't want that. And I don't all for us, because okay, so let me so let me ask you this, because you said somebody that stands beside them is complicit. My sales reps approved and

liked my concept. I brought my Jordan's rep there, he took pictures. He's like, Yo, this is dope. It's amazing. His bosses the leadership at Nike was like, no, we don't like it in Portland's. So I asked a question again, if my sales reps, other stores, other neighborhood accounts even are like, yo, we think it's dope. We would want to do something like that. But the senior management John Donohue, that runs the offense, if that trickles down, is it

still funk Nike? To me, it is because if all of those reptues saying they would want to do it, and they're not willing to stand up and say, yo, this is wrong, Like for first of all is wrong. Not only is the idea dope, but what you're doing to the man is wrong. Right If if that's sometimes tell you because leadership it doesn't. You can't leave somebody that's not followed, right, And I don't care if you

could be the biggest leader. If you say, yo, I'm making an order, Everybody like, no, we're not doing that. Ship that don't make sense, Then who are you actually leading? You understand I'm saying. So that's that comes. There's a level of integrity, as a level of understanding, there's a level of more right, all of these things that a lot of these corporations lack and a lot of these people is a is a dog eat dog world in

these corporations, and you have to understand that. And when you understand and that that, you have to say to yourself, I understand that there's a like there's a ceiling here. They're not letting me get but so far so I know that I know that the ceiling is gonna get here because this is how they work. They're only only when they can make money off me. They don't want to make money with me. They want to be able

to benefit off of me. So I have to figure out a way that I eat independent of them while I'm taking the money and I got this relationship, how am I building out something on this side that when when they realize or they feel like I'm no longer valuable to them, and they decided to do what they're doing. Now, how do I continue to eat? How I built a mechanism that continues to go outside of that because what it is, don't get it twisted right? Like I was

on sent them the lawyer letter. I was one who told them I was not opening up my stores, and they told me if they don't open my stores, I'll lose my account. I'm fully prepared. I believe in my concept. I'm working with investment groups right now. I was just over in London and I'm going to still open up my Experience stores with or without Nike. But my play and the reason why I DM do you and Tamika to help me with this fight and to bring awareness.

And this is the one thing that we disagree on is that I feel like I want to attack Nike management. You want to attack Nike brand, and I see where you're coming from. I just don't know. I just don't know how I feel yet. But but like I said,

I was excited to have a conversation. I love. What I love though, is that we all that that we are not stoic in our understanding right, meaning that there is there's the well still with meaning that we're just still like right, we are we are able to understand nuance right, Um, and the activists do what we do right,

the protesters do what they do. We've got people who are part of our protest movement that work within the administrations that we're protesting, and they go in and they are able to work the inside outside with us to help us. So we might say the whole police department shut it down, you know, period, But then there are people who work inside. They may be executives, they may

be senior leadership. I know for me in in the NYPD in New York, I have many friends that are in leadership that are able to take the message inside and try their best to push the line. Our job is to be as bold as loud and to create and awareness at these issues as possible. But because of the fact that there's so much money being made on our people's backs, we have to make sure that even when it's you know, I don't say f Nike, like my son says, it's so powerful when he says it.

But um, even though I'm not lying Nike anymore, I don't support the brand anymore. Even though that is true, I still know that there are employees, there are businesses, there are students, there are other people that should benefit from the eighteen whatever you said, billion dollars, billion dollars that our community is a big part of the spend. Hopefully.

What we can do, though, is use what uh my son has been doing to move our people to start spending that eighteen billion with our own or whatever portion of the eighteen billion we are with our own, and that is that's gotta be all of us thinking about that and working on it and figuring it out. So you know, I just I want to thank you because you're bringing a different perspective to the dialogue, you know, um as a business person who has a different relationship,

and I hope that things work out. And to the point that you and my son just kind of discussed, I wouldn't say debated, what is that? What does it look like to believe in yourself enough that whether Nike comes along or not, you can still survive and still have The book number three be about the fact that they try to shut me down, but Sneakers is still saving me right yet. So I don't know, Mince if you have anything else, but by the way, you're well over our time to sorry, But it was a good

conversation though it was definitely good. I just want to say, you know, I definitely understand like Tomika said, they're they're multiple you know, entry points into a fight. You know. My mind, like I tell people all the time, my mind, my protest is extreme me. That's how I am. I'm a very extreme individual. And and it's from my own personal thing because I know when I when I make my mind up about and then I have to I have to see it in real time, like you know,

I have to be tangible. So when I say I'm not doing something, I'm doing something, I've gotta do it. I gotta see it. And once I commit myself to it, I'm principal to the point where it's like okay, that's what it is for me. And I don't commit myself to something that I'm not seriously about doing. So that's just who I am. And so what and and I, like I told you before, the way that I've seen you know that white man speak about Kyrie as if

he was a slave. It it triggered me in the manner that I couldn't have a good conscious continue to support the brand or anything that that this was me as I know there's no way that the code they're gonna get rid of, the co found He's not gonna go anywhere. Don't matter what happens, He's still gonna be there. You understand I'm saying, So me protesting against him, what

is that going to he? He go in the background and say, oh yeah, let me just disappear and still have the ideologies that I have, you know, running this company. You know, so that that's just my perspective. Your perspective is different. You you know, you built the brand, all of you know, doing this, this partnership with Nike and you and you, and you see where you are able to identify certain individuals that you need to attack, not

the brand. So and that's a different thing. But when we when we're all attacking from different angles, did That's how change happened. When you're attacking this and I'm attacking this, it's like it's like term mites eating all all over the world, So it ain't it ain't one direction. Then they realize, Okay, we gotta do something there, something gotta change. So you fight your fight. I fight my fight to meek the fight. So we all fight, but we all

fighting towards the same thing. We want equity in the quality. So you know, I definitely support you, but thank you, and yeah, thank you and Tomka, thank you for breaking it down to me. I never I didn't look at it from that perspective. And activism is let's blow everything up and then the trickle down the fact we might we might move somewhere, you know. So no, I I totally see the angle you guys are coming from. And and thank you so much for having me on the

show and whoever is listening to this. Yes, I still am a proponent of let's change Nike's management. Let's get John Donnehue out of there. Let's get that strategic goal of keeping their neighborhood accounts on the sidelines, with not having enough pairs unable to pay their rent, just so that we could heap the streets and create culture. We could be profitable. We could be uh you know, um, you know we I want to see the neighborhood accounts I p oing. I want to see uh, you know,

neighborhood accounts being foot five hundred companies. And we won't if we just keep on staying on the block and we can't you know, grow with outside of our radius. So I will keep up my fight and keep fighting

for the neighborhood accounts even though I don't have one anymore. Right, And I feel and we could build our own neighborhood accounts for our own black brands, that we can make something that's bigger than Nike, and we can be controlled on our own and we can have our own I p O. Because black brilliance and black excellence is with this coach. Yes, sir, agreed. What we're gonna say to me goa nothing. Thank you, Exclude City, Thank you so

much for joining us on keep being great man. Yes you too, brother, thank you, thank you well, that was a very good conversation. Man. Shout out to tune out aloud, shout out to Exclude City. You know, I love having conversations, not really debate, but conversations so that we because we all have the ultimately the same goal, you know, we we want to be treated properly, we want fairness, we want, you know, to be have equity in the things that

we do. And you know his approach it's different than mind. You know, he he believes that he can change it by the management, and I believe you just can't change it, I just leave funk it all. But you know, ultimately both of our strategies will get us somewhere, you know. So shout out to him man and his grind and his two books. He's working on the third one. You know, I just I appreciate him. Man. He sounds like somebody's

very brilliant young man. You know, the the idea that he has to sell sneakers in this current market and understanding the Internet and understanding all those things, it's brilliant. I think, you know, his his idea, it's gonna give him where he needs to go. And you know, with or without night. Absolutely. Yeah. So that brings me to my I don't get it now. You know, I wrestled with this one. I wrestled with this. I don't get it. But you know, because I've grown to actually like Ben Jones.

You know, there's somebody that I've met, We've had dialogue, and he's somebody I think it is very influence you, very smart individual and and ultimately he wants the same thing that I want as a black man. You know, he want equity. You know a lot of times he goes about it and the way that I don't really

agree with we me and him have discussed. I don't really agree with some of the things he said, and you know, and he's admitted that he might have admitted that, but this this new statement, you know, Um, I just don't understand how he could apologize for black people about

something that black people have been doing. It didn't really It just was like and then there was this the the statement that he didn't say what he did say, and then the video and the audio came out, and I just I just I just think that we have to do a lot better, you know, we just have

to do better. You know. None of us like anti semitism, you know, and a lot of us has spoken out a lot of times, you know, we we we say a lot, you know, and I've seen Corner West say some things that a lot of us have been way more vocal about anti Semitism than people have been about anti blackness. And that's one of the real things, you know.

I know, I just was on my page, you know, debating with my own with a lot of people about some things that that um that um Kanye had said that that I didn't agree with at all, you know, and I voiced it. But I just think for then to to publicly stand up in certain rooms. And it's the certain rooms that you're going, right. He didn't go into a room with black people and say, yeah, we

should be doing this, or pheel have a conversation. You're into rooms, you know, with people outside of our coach, outside of you know, our blackness, and talked about us. And I don't like that. I don't think it makes sense, you know what I'm saying, you know, And like I said, I have a lot of love and respect for man, but I just I really didn't get what he thought

he was doing. I didn't. I didn't think. I didn't get how he thought it made sense, you know, to stand up and say something like that, and it was inaccurate, you know, because there's a lot of us who've been speaking up about anti sellagis. Yeah. I mean I think that, Um, you know, none of us can apologize on behalf of an entire community, right, none of us, not, none of us. There's nobody that can do that. Um. I think that Van is consistent, however, and I would you know, and

I hope that people know that he's very consistent. He is, you know, he said he often says things that make me go, well, you know, that position that you're taking feels very much like you are supporting negative concepts, ideologies or whatever things that think people think and say about us as black people and um. And you know, there's been times when he's missed the mark, and I'm sure he probably would say, oh, well to me, I'm glad you said that. I don't like some of the things

that you have said. Right, But to your point, we know Van. We see him often and we have conversations. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we don't. I think in this situation, he really the whole I apologize on behalf of our community thing. No, he should never have said that when he should have said, is I apologize for myself, you know, for what I hadn't been doing, and then nobody would

have been upset about anything he said. They might have there may be there may have been a few people to say, oh, Van is over there, you know doing you know, telling people he's sorry, apologize there, But who cares. He has every right to be for himself sorry to a community that he feels he should have done more to support. Yeah, I have be right to say that. And that's where that's and I think I think it's

just that simple. So anybody that's talking to him when he's trying to explaining, well, I was saying this, and then you can make it. We can boil it down to these words right here, be sorry for yourself. That's it. And and then and then and then and then I think the conversation to me, the conversation is over with at that point because what people think about you, how you feel, it's all on you, right, Because I might

have been a little bit more. Um, I may have been comfortable or not so much comfortable, but I might have understood it a little more if he if he was in the room full of black Jews, if he was in the room full of black juice, to say, you know what, we as black people have to be more supportive of black Jews that exist that are dealing with blackness and't they're being they're being disregarding in their religion and their race, which we all experience is being

attacked on a regular basis. And we noticed because we talked to black Jews who told us what they deal with discrimination and be and and people not even acknowledging them. Right. So, so if he had said something like that but still well, I'm sorry for all black people I don't know, you know. And that's and and this is a conversation that I often have with you, um and you know, and I'm trying to check myself constantly with be real careful about

generalizing our statements. This is why our friends something that is our friend, it is actually our it's a helper, it's our it is what makes us uh thoughtful and and and helps to to bring our points to a place of of great uh. You know. Where we're educating is to use words like some a few those that you know, to make sure that we use turns and words rather when we're speaking. That narrows in on who

you're talking about. Because when we say white people this, or black people that, or black men or whatever, we gotta be real sure that what we're saying applies to the whole m. Yeah. So yeah, you know, and and and that's that's what it is, man, you know nothing but love for then you know, I try until until you go all the way over the line and you make me feel like you just don't funk with us

at all. I try to give you the benefit of doubt, even though you know I'm a you know, I'm I'm consistently gonna say some ship that when I see some ship that don't make sense to me, I'm consistently like nah, especially when you have a public voice and public platforms, you know, and you and you you represent black people. Then and you do ship that don't make sense, then I'm gonna say, Now, I don't really I don't agree with that, you know, And I'm gonna give you the

benefit of doubt. So well, I'm gonna give you the benefit of doubt. But in this situation, you know, man, I just think you know, it was just a misstep. Like like Tomka said, speaking about yourself and how you felt that you've attacked attacked anti Semitism wasn't up to part. You know. I don't think you can speak for us. Oh, you know, a lot of us feel like we've done, we've got going above and beyond. You know, a lot of us feel like we've done more than we've actually

seen Jews do about anti blackness. You know, j some Jews, some Jews because we know people like Barro Ellman and other Jewish people who do a lot to try to support the black community. But overall, right, we are always asked, always asked to defend lots of communities, to join lots of fights, and and and and and we should continue to do that, right, and we should understand because there's so many people, as you and I know, they do

not even know what antisemitism is. They never heard the term at all, right, and now they're being exposed to it, and they're getting an opportunity to learn, Right, what does this mean? Who does it harm? Which communities are impacted by it? And like what does it mean for us as black people? How do we participate in whatever side? Right? Um and and and and it's nothing wrong with us being educated about other communities, being educated about hate that

exists in the world for different people. You know, it's nothing wrong with that, but you know there's so much there and not even but it's just that is the fact, Like, right, people are getting to learn about this particular issue, and we all just have to be mindful of what we say, which is to your point, nobody is gonna tell mean that I have to get over racism, that I gotta

get over what the KKK did to us. It doesn't mean that I'm walking around digging into people's history to find out if their great great grandfather was a KKK member. I'm not. I may not be at that extent, but I damn sure holds a very serious grudge against this country, first of all, for what what it has allowed and how we built it, and then what has continued to

happen to us. And still there's been no reckoning. There's been nothing done as far as I'm concerned, to really truly address the harm and the trauma that was caused. And I'm not and you don't have to, and nobody should. So nobody should be telling you no, I was gonna say. And that's why nobody can't tell the Jewish community to get over hitmer. You bugging like you can't say that too. That's crazy. It's just crazy. So it is what it is.

Another day, another day, another episode. Shout out to turn Out Loud and his EXCLUSI City. You know, hopefully he gets what he wants. Dope interview, Dope brother, brilliant young brother. Continue to do what you do, y'all, go support him, follow him. You know, we gotta support all of our brothers and sisters in this work in every aspect. You know, I've been on my black owned business support black owned

business thing for a while. Shout out to um Bungee brand, Bungee the brand who just sent me some dope sneaker. Shout out to my Boy Goods with slip walks, Shout out to Sire so many different other ones. Man, I'm gonna be wearing black owned shoes right now. If you've got some clothes, let me know so I can see. I'm gonna start purchasing things right now. I got I got a clip of things that have been just sent

to me because of the support. You know, when I started supporting these businesses, um a lot of people, their sales went up tremendously, so they was like, y'all want to send you this as a you know, as appreciation. So right now I've got a lot of stuff that I still want to brand. I want people to see it. And now on since I say fun Nankee, you know, I'm gonna be purchasing from exclusively from these brands. So I appreciate y'all. Make sure y'all follow me. Follow all

of the brands that's on my page. I put up different brands. Make sure you follow support and bye bye bye bye. And with that said, thank you for another Dope Episode Tim. Because I'm not gonna always be right, She's not gonna always be wrong, but we will both always and I mean always, be all the peace. Listen to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on I Heart Radio, and catch us every single Wednesday for the video version of Street Politicians when I Women dot tv.